Dear John: If you remember, my last correspondence with you was in April, regarding applying for a mortgage modification for my mother from Wells Fargo bank.
I am writing to tell you that my original thoughts to you about modifications being a scam are correct.
I had to call Wells Fargo to find out my mother was denied a modification because her debt-to-income ratio was 55 percent.
Yes, it is upsetting that my mother was denied the modification.
But what is more upsetting is how Wells Fargo treats people — never returning phone calls, making lame excuses and giving out timelines it never meets.
(The last piece of info needed was a “broker price opinion.” It took over a month to get that.)
Why does it take more than three months from the first set of financials to tell me my mother was denied because of income-to-debt?
(The broker price opinion apparently means nothing.)
My mother is paying a 7.25 percent interest rate, and Wells Fargo should be ashamed of itself.
What makes Wells Fargo think that by being denied, she can still make the monthly payment?
My mother owes $160,000 on the loan, and the appraised value of the house is around $185,000.
On top of all that, a person from Wells Fargo’s office of executive complaints did not even have the guts to call and tell me that the modification request was rejected.
I have respect for people who tell me bad news directly and no respect for people like this, since he told me he would call me on May 1 and never did.
I had to call just to get somebody else to tell me of the denial of the modification, which to me is just plain bad management. Thank you for your time. S.G.
Dear S.G.: I had a long conversation recently with Wells Fargo about a number of mortgage questions that I had sent to the bank. In essence, people were complaining that the bank wasn’t moving forward on their concerns.
Wells Fargo was obviously worried about bad publicity and wanted me to understand that not everyone qualifies for a new mortgage and sometimes houses get foreclosed.
But with The Post publishing your letter with only a few minor changes, the bank is now getting the bad publicity it was trying to avoid.
So let me make this general request: Is there any bank out there that can do better than a 7.25 percent mortgage in the current financial environment?
Let me further state that if a bank says it can give this woman — who is current in her payments and has more equity than debt in her house — a new mortgage and then it jerks her around, that bank will also get bad publicity.
I want to see proposals with low market rates and fees that can be recouped in just a few months.
Any takers?
Send your questions to Dear John, The NY Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.